GOING PRO

American Professional Malpractice Insurance

I like American Professional because they cover corporations, various levels of various licensures and their rates are pretty low. You’ll want at least 1,000,000/3,000,000 coverage no matter what company you go with.

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Muse: Brain Sensing Headband

Oh, how I love Muse. It’s like a biofeedback machine. Here’s a quick breakdown: you put on the headband, which goes across your forehead and behind your ears. You use the free app on your phone which connects via bluetooth. It tests your brain using simple lists (like think of all the types of fruits you can until they say stop). Then you launch into however long a meditation you want choosing a beach audio scene or a forrest audio scene. Here’s the cool part— when you start thinking it starts storming. When you’re focused on the meditation, the rain calms and you may even hear birds. Then, for you other data geeks out there, after the meditation is over it gives you your stats including what percentage of the time your brain was calm, active or neutral. How many birds you got and some seemingly random “awards” like being both perfectly calm and at the maximum of thinking in the same meditation session. I have never been so consistent with meditation. Partly because the data is so interesting and patly because it tracks your “streaks” and I don’t want to start all over! If you keep alcohol swabs in your office you can use this for your clients, too. They can download their own free Muse app and you can use it much like a biofeedback machine. Boom- it’s a business expense.

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STITCH FIX

Some of us needed a closet upgrade 10 years ago. Maybe we were in grad school then or in an agency or some other version of just plain broke. And then the clothes we bought at Target fell apart at the seams or started getting pilly. And then we were super busy with work and/or family and we now dress like the Mom Jeans skit from SNL. Maybe not that bad, but you get it. If you’re charging people $100+ per session for therapy, you should probably upgrade your wardrobe. You don’t have to spend a grand or anything, but a few high quality versatile pieces should do the trick to keep you from looking like a 1990’s palm reader (I see a lot of this look at social work conferences). I love Stitch Fix because they deliver it to my door where I can try it on with what I own and ship it back from my front porch. Here’s a hack to do it cheaply: if you see clients weekly have one outfit that you wear at work per week. Leave it at work and wear more casual clothes for your commute and at home. Your nice work outfit won’t get stained or sweat on and could probably last all 4-5 days you work. When you have more money, you can buy more outfits. It may not be the classiest solution, but it works.

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UPWORK FOR VIRTUAL ASSISTANCE

I’ve realized that there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to learn everything I would need to know to do everything by myself. I’ve hired virtual assistants (VA’s) for tech-based jobs that were making my head spin. You can hire VA’s for a wide array of tasks from finding and buying your mom a birthday present to creating a gorgeous logo to making internet marketing systems play nicely. Know when you’re out of your depth and get help. Vet the people who apply for the job well and be very clear with the VA about what you want.

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